The two young women took a brief pause from advocating for the environment and human rights to meet for the very first time. To no one’s surprise, they were fast friends. Greta Thunberg visited Malala Yousafzai at the University of Oxford, where the Pakistani activist is a senior. Thunberg is in the UK for a…… MORE
She may just have won the Geneva Summit 2020 International Women’s Prize but Iranian activist Shaparak Shajarizadeh says she can’t feel happiness anymore — not while her friends and other women’s rights activists remain imprisoned in Iran. “I’m not a happy person and I feel guilty all the time,” she told CNN in a candid…… MORE
Forgive Vladimir Putin a wry smile. Just one report that Russia is meddling again in US elections has pitched Washington into a meltdown that will only further the Kremlin’s goal of tarnishing US democracy. Bombshell reports last week revealed that US intelligence agencies identified a new Russian election interference effort — and suggested the Kremlin…… MORE
Fidel Castro is back. From beyond the grave, the socialist icon who faced down Uncle Sam for 50 years is casting his spell over yet another US election campaign. Front-running Democrat Bernie Sanders, author of his own, milder leftist revolution, refused to fully repudiate past praise of the Cuban dictator in a “60 Minutes” interview…… MORE
About 74,000 years ago, Sumatra’s Mount Toba experienced a super-eruption — an event scientists suspect was large enough to wipe out a majority of early humans living at the time, slowing down the spread of humanity. But researchers have discovered evidence that Homo sapiens were migrating before, during and after the event, according to a…… MORE
Today is Shrove Tuesday. Also known as Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras (in French) and by many other nicknames. It’s the big hurrah before Christians start Lent, a season of prayer, penance and fasting in preparation for the Easter season. But even on a day with king cake, beads, parades and giant floats, there’s still a…… MORE
Space weather has more implications than causing glitches in Earth’s satellite-based communications — it can also strand gray whales, according to a new study. Typically, space weather is created when solar storms occur on the sun and stream out toward Earth. The high-energy particles can disrupt our communications and Earth’s magnetic field. But they may…… MORE
A nine-day heat wave scorched Antarctica’s northern tip earlier this month. New NASA images reveal that nearly a quarter of an Antarctic island’s snow cover melted in that time — an increasingly common symptom of the climate crisis. The images show Eagle Island on the northeastern peninsula of the icy continent at the start and…… MORE
It’s not just Earth that’s shaking these days. A NASA mission on Mars has recorded evidence of seismic activity, including 174 seismic events across Mars–and 20 events with a magnitude of three or four. Marsquakes anyone? Evidence of seismic activity on Mars that surprised the NASA team is part of a suite of six studies,…… MORE
Here’s what you need to know to Start Your Week Smart. (You can also get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. You give us five minutes, and we give you five things you must know for your weekday, plus a Sunday edition to get your week started smart. Sign up…… MORE
